The Big Ten is considering a proposal that would give the conference the authority to review and evaluate the practices of its 12 members’ athletic departments, and to levy penalties if warranted.

Part of that process, still being discussed, would grant Big Ten commissioner Jim Delany the authority to suggest to a school that a coach be fired if his or her misdeeds harmed the conference’s reputation.

Individual institutions, however, would not be bound to follow Delany’s suggestion to fire a coach. That decision would remain up to the school, Ohio State athletic director Gene Smith said.

The Chronicle of Higher Education reported yesterday that a proposal in an obtained Big Ten document suggests that Delany be given the authority to fire coaches himself.

“That’s not what this is all about,” Smith said. “That’s not the intent. If an institution is operating inappropriately and the conference office finds something egregious or the school has lost its moral compass, it would still be up to the institutions to make the decision on what they want to do with a personnel issue.

“The intent is not for the commissioner to come in and say, ‘As a result of our findings, we’re going to fire this coach.’ Findings would be turned over to an institution, and the institution would respond. This would give (Delany) the ability to be strong and firm on a recommendation to the (school) president on how he or she would deal with the personnel situation.”

The Big Ten confirmed that the proposal, titled “Standards and Procedures for Safeguarding Institutional Control of Intercollegiate Athletics,” is being discussed.

“It is a working document intended to generate ideas, not draw conclusions,” according to an email sent from Big Ten headquarters to people in the league. “One provision in the document addresses ‘emergency authority of the commissioner’ — it is just one of many ideas.”

The Big Ten’s bylaws already give the conference the power to penalize member schools for rules violations, but the league historically has not conducted its own reviews and evaluations of athletic departments.

Gaining the power to, in essence, audit the operations of member athletic programs is one of the ideas proposed in an 18-page plan being considered by the league and its members’ presidents, athletic directors and faculty representatives.

“It’s really a document that basically gives the Big Ten conference office some oversight authority,” Smith said. “They could come in and evaluate your institution and program, assess the authority and decision-making process, access the culture and look at policies and procedures and how you run your athletic department.

“It’s another way to really scrub what you’re doing, evaluate what you’re doing, look at whether or not you have the best practices in place, look at where you can strengthen and improve and, if necessary, if they find inappropriate behavior or violations, then the Big Ten office can take action.“I actually think it’s a good idea.”

Smith said the plan being discussed is a response to the “cultural issues that occurred at Penn State,” which is under investigation by the NCAA in regards to that university’s actions in the Jerry Sandusky child sex-abuse scandal.

The Chronicle of Higher Education reported that the idea of Big Ten presidents and chancellors considering the removal of Penn State from the conference is one proposal in the plan under consideration.

“I can’t recall that being in there,” Smith said. “It could be in there. Even without that document, the presidents would have that authority, for whatever reason, to have that discussion.”

The plan proposing league reviews and possible sanctions will be discussed at the Big Ten meeting in October. Smith said he doesn’t expect a vote on the plan until probably next year.

“Part of the discussion,” Smith said, “is how would a review be done? Who is doing it from the conference office? How many people? How often? Every year? Every other year?”

The Big Ten does not have a contingency scheduling plan if the NCAA were to ban Penn State from participation this season or any future season.

“That’s all speculation,” Smith said. “None of us have talked about that, and probably won’t. That (NCAA investigation) process is going to take a while.”

Future football games

Smith said the Big Ten athletic directors will discuss scheduling philosophies when they meet next week in Chicago. Schools are looking for direction in terms of how strength-of-schedule might play a part in determining the four-team football playoff that will begin in the 2014 season.

Until then, Smith said Ohio State won’t fill one open date in the 2020 and 2021 seasons that were vacated when the proposed scheduling agreement between the Big Ten and Pac-12 recently dissolved. The Big Ten also must decide if it will play eight or nine conference games per season.